Car-fender.



G. E. FREY. CAR FENDER,

APPLICATION HLED MAY H, 1917- Patented July. 31, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET I ATTORNEY.

G. E. FREY.

C'AR FENDER.

APPLICATION lflLED MAY11.1917.

' 1,235,307. Patented July 31, 1917.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

14 l T N555 ES v LVVENTOR.

GEORGE E. FREY, 0F STEUBENVILLE, OHIO.

OAR-FENDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Fatented July 31, 1917.

Application filed May 11, 1917. Serial No. 167,906.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnonen E. FRnY, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of Steubenville, county of Jefferson, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Fenders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates broadly to fenders for wheeled vehicles, and it has for its primary object to provide a simple and comparatively inexpensive fender for cars and the like adapted to be actuated by impact with an object or person in the trackwa-y to assume a position afiording a receptacle into which such object or person may fall and be carried without liability to serious injury.

A further objectis to provide a safety fender of the character mentioned which may be folded to occupy a substantially upright 0ut-of-theway position when 0ccasion demands, when it is desired to couple other cars thereto, or to employ the car as a trailer.

With these and other objects in view, the invention resides in the features of construction, arrangement of parts and combinations of elements which will'hereinafter be fully described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a top plan view of the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same in working position;

Fig. 3 is a similar elevation in tripped position;

Fig. l is an enlarged detail view in side elevation illustrating the means whereby the tripping movement is limited;

Fig. 5 is a section on line 5-5, Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is an enlarged plan view of a fragment of the netting.

Referring to said drawings, in which like designating characters distinguish like parts throughout the several views 1 indicates the opposite parallel side members of a main fender frame, the rear ends of which are designed to be rigidly mounted upon a suitable part, as the sills, of acar. Pivotally mounted upon pivot bolts 2 carried by said side members 1 at points located a sultable distance rearward of the front ends of the latter are the rear end portions 8 of the side members a of a tilting catch-frame which is of substantially rectangular form and which is preferably composed of a single length of metal tubing flattened at its ends to form said end portions 3.

Rigidly mounted upon the side members 1 at a suitable distance rearward of their front ends are the lower ends of upright posts or supports 5 which are connected at their upper ends by a transverse bar 6, said posts and bar being preferably formed of a single length of metal tubing, as shown. Connected at one end to said transverse bar 6 is a netting 7 which has its opposite end connected to the transverse member 8 of the catchframe. Said netting may be composed of any appropriate flexible material or fabric, that hereinshown being composed of a plurality of longitudinally extending link chains 7 and a plurality of transversely extending cross-chains 7 interlinked with said chains 7*.

Located close inside the confines of the mainframe and the catch-frame at each side is a long retractile coil spring 9 which has its front end attached to a suitable hook or eye-bolt, as 10, carried by the side member 4: adjacent to the front end of the catchframe, and has itsrear end attached to a similar hook or eye-bolt 11 carried by the frame member 1 at a suitable distance rearward of the adjacent pivot-bolt 2.

The netting 7 serves to support the front end of the catch-frame and has a length which permits said frame to assume a normal, or running, position wherein it is inclined downward slightly with respect to the plane in which the pivot-bolts 2 and the eye-bolts 11 are located, as shown in Fig. 2. Due to said inclination of the catch-frame the springs 9 serve to yieldingly resist elevating movement of said frame from running position. "When, however, the said frame is tripped or actuated, as by the weight of a person or object falling upon the netting, to swing to an upwardly inclined position, as shown in Fig, 3, said springs serve to yieldingly maintain said frame in the last-mentioned position. In

such position of the catch-frame the flexible netting affords a bagdike receptacle where in the person or object by which the fender has been tripped is supported and revented from falling off.

F or limiting the extent of the upward swinging movement of the catch-frame when the latter is tripped aforesaid, and thus to prevent undue injury to a person received upon the fender, a stop 12 is provided on each of the side members 1 at or adjacent to the forward end of the latter, said step preferably comprising an upwardly extending arm bolted to the SlClE-DlGl'llbGl and having an inturned, or laterally disposed, lug l2 adapted to have the portion 3 of the adjacent side member a seat thereagainst, as shown in Figs. 3, 4L and 5. Said stop 12 is mounted pen a pair of bolts 13 which have coil springs 14: interposed between the outer face of the adjacent member 1 and washers l5 scatec against the bolt heads, as shown in Fig. 5. Said springs ll normally serve to yieldingly support said stops in close seating relation to the members 1. lVhen, however, it is desired to swing the catch-frame back to inoperative position against the transverse bar 6, as when it is desired to couple the car to another, the

stops 12 may obviously be swung back against the tension of their seating springs 14: to withdraw their lugs 12 from the path of movement of said frame.

lVhat is claimed is l. A car fender comprising opposite mainframe members, upright supports mounted upon said members rearward of the front ends of the latter, a transverse bar carried by said supports, a catch-frame pivotally mounted on said main-frame members and extending forward therefrom, a flexible netting connected at one end to said transverse member and at its opposite end to said catchframe, and retractile coil springs interposed between said frames in such manner that they are placed under their maximum tension when said frames are in alinement and which are adapted to yieldingly maintain said catch-frame either in a downwardly inclined position or in an upwardly inclined position.

2. A car fender comprising a pivoted catch-frame normally supported in an extended position wherein it has a slight downward inclination and adapted for movement to an upwardly inclined position, a netting having its forward end connected to the front end of said frame, and retractile coil springs having their rear ends attached to a fixed part and their front ends attached to said frame adjacent to the front end of the latter, said springs tending to yieldingly maintain said frame at either of its limits of movement.

8. A carzfender comprising a fixed'portion, a catch-frame pivoted at its rear end upon said fixed portion and movable between limits located above and below the horizon tal plane in which its pivots are located, retractile coil springs connected at their front ends to said catch-frame and at their rear ends to fixed parts located rearward of said pivots, said springs being under greatest tension when said catch-frame occupies a position between said limits, said springs be ing adapted to yieldingly maintain said frame at either of said limits-of movement, and a netting having its rear end supported above and rearward with respect to said pivots and having its front end connected to the front end of said frame.

a. A car fender comprising a fixed portion, a catch-frame pivoted at its rear end upon said fixed portion and movable between limits located above and below the horizontal plane in which its pivots are located, retractile coil springs connected at their front ends to said catch-frame and at their rear ends to fixed parts located rearward of said pivots, said springs being adapted to yield ingly maintain said frame at either of said limits of movement, and a netting having its rear end supported above and rearward with respect to said pivots and having its front end connected to the front end of said frame, said netting serving to support the front end of said frame at its lower limit of movement.

5. A car fender comprising a fixed portion, a catch-frame pivoted at its rear end upon said fixed portion and movable between limits located above and below the horizontal plane in which its pivots are located, retractile coil springs connected at their front ends to said catch-frame and at their rear ends to fixed parts located rearward of said pivots, said springs being adapted to yieldingly maintain said frame at either of said limits of movement, a netting having its rear end supported above and rearward with respect to said pivots and having its front end connected to the front end of said frame, said netting serving to support the front end of said frame at its lower limit of movement,

and means adapted to be engaged by said frame limiting the extent of upward movement of the latter.

6. A car fender comprising a fixed portion, a catch-frame pivoted at its rear end upon said fixed portion and movable between limits located above and below the horizontal plane in which its pivots are located, retractile coil springs connected at their front ends to said catch-frame and at their rear ends to fixed parts located rearward of said pivots said springs being adapted to yieldinglv maintain said f ame at either of said limits of movement, a netting having its rear end supported above and rearward with respect drawable from the path of movement of said to said pivots and having its front end conframe. 10 neoted to the front end of said frame, said In testimony whereof, I affix my signature netting serving to support the front end of in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

said frame at its lower limit of movement, GEORGE E. FREY. and means adapted to be engaged by said Witnesses:

frame limiting the extent of upward move- DANIEL STOREK,

ment of the latter, said means being with- F. B. SIMMONS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. 0. 

